When I sat down with director Jose Padilha at Comic Con to talk about his upcoming Robocop reboot, I expected to have a very superficial conversation about his first Hollywood blockbuster. Instead, he dished out a deep psychological dissection of the characters and story of his film.

I’ve now seen the film and got another chance to talk with Padilha about the finished project. We spoke about how he got the directing gig, and the source of the concept at the core of the film. We talk about his background before filmmaking, when he studied political economy at Oxford. He tells me the most interesting thing he learned about the advancement in robotics while developing the movie. We discuss the struggles of trying to make a smart blockbuster movie in the Hollywood system. Why his RoboCop is not R-Rated and dealing with the MPAA over graphic violence in the film. All of this and more can be read in my interview with Jose, after the jump.

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If Jose Padilha‘s RoboCop wasn’t called “RoboCop,” it would be much easier to embrace. While this remake evokes and/or borrows many designs and big ideas from Paul Verhoven’s 1987 original, the meat of the story is almost totally unique, giving it the feel of a completely different movie. Obviously, that was the point, but by simultaneously differentiating itself while also staying beholden to the original, the film is burdened with the weight of expectations and analysis of the original film.

That burden aside, Padilha has made a pretty solid movie. It has a lot to say and it delves into facets of the Alex Murphy character we’d never seen before. The story is global; the influence of media and government plays a huge role. There’s some really intense action, which takes a back seat to myriad points of social commentary and morality. Those points give the film a seemingly unique voice, but it doesn’t work as a cohesive piece. Padilha has brought together a strong cast with beautiful music and camerawork to make a movie much better than one would expect, but nowhere near what you’d hoped. Read More »

Briefly: The RoboCop remake opens in two days, with showings starting Wednesday. (It has already opened in the UK.) Those who attend IMAX showings of the film will be treated to some marketing from Warner Bros., which is packaging an extended look at 300: Rise of an Empire with the biggest-screen outings of RoboCop. How you’ll feel about this naturally depends on the reaction you’ve already had to the many trailers for the 300 sequel; Warner Bros. is obviously banking on the idea that seeing some of 300 on the country’s biggest screens will be a good sales pitch.

As remakes go, Jose Padilha‘s Robocop seems to be one of the more interesting ones. Not only does it promise a whole new spin on the core concept — by focusing far more closely on the toll that Robocopping takes on Alex Murphy for example — it’s assembled a great cast to help sell that story. Joel Kinnaman is the shining star, but he’s backed by the likes of Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Jackie Earle Haley, Samuel L. Jackson, and Abbie Cornish.

The latest batch of photos highlight some of those talented supporting players, while also showing off how damn cool Kinnaman looks at Robocop. Check ‘em out after the jump.

An all-but-unstoppable robot cop is good to have around when drug cartels or terrorists show up, but can he corral drunk drivers? The National Highway Safety Administration hopes so. It has recruited RoboCop for a PSA warning holiday drivers that a futuristic law enforcement officer who doesn’t actually exist will be able to read their blood alcohol content from afar before making a traffic stop.

Actually, maybe a made-up cop is a good boogeyman for drunk drivers because there are probably some drunks who would be so psyched to meet RoboCop that they’d just stop for the privilege.

Most of the Robocop marketing so far has focused on, well, Robocop (Joel Kinnaman). But before he was Robocop, he was a plain old human known as Alex Murphy — and as the latest international trailer reminds us, Alex is lurking inside of him still.

While there’s more than enough action to go around in this new promo, the real focus is on the very human cost of Omnicorp’s new robot police force. It seems that being brought to the brink of death and then revived as a freakish android-man hybrid tends to take an emotional toll on a guy. Watch the video after the jump.

Director Jose Padilha seems to know that some people are looking at his remake of RoboCop with a jaundiced eye, and so he introduces the new trailer for the film with some of the same explanation that he offered at Comic Con.

In fact, this is a version of the reel that was shown at Comic Con this past summer, starting with drones patrolling the Middle East and Samuel L. Jackson‘s character railing against the fact that similar tactics are not being used to police the streets at home. That’s where OCP chairman Michael Keaton steps in, with a plan to “put a man inside a machine.” And thus, the new RoboCop is born. Of all the remakes we’ve seen of well-known properties, this one looks like it has the most potential to blend the original ideas with new concepts that give it a unique personality.

With shots that last less than a second, it’s possible to pack an impressive amount of information into a fifteen-second clip. That’s the case with this preview of the new trailer for the RoboCop remake. The trailer hits tomorrow, and this advance look comes from Entertainment Tonight, but thankfully it is free of talking heads and intrusive voiceover.

Puzzle out what this is really telling us about Jose Padilha‘s remake of the sci-fi satire by watching below.

Update: Additional video, both finished trailer footage and behind the scenes shots, has been added below. Read More »